Whenever one starts collecting old things, like for example pinball machines, one is likely to encounter imagery that is not acceptable today. Racist and sexist imagery that is actually quite shocking to today’s standards.
It’s almost hard to believe some of this stuff was created, approved and sold commercially and displayed before the paying public. Even today the pinball playing and collecting market is dominated by white males, but hopefully most of them have become more sensitive to the demeaning and exploitative imagery of the past.
What do you do with this problematic imagery of the past? It could just be destroyed, buried and hidden away but I think it’s a good reminder of how far we’ve come from these old days of segregation and stereotyping.
Seeing collections of racist objects from the past can really shock people of today and I think that’s a good thing. We shouldn’t just hide our racist and sexist past. People need to be made uncomfortable about our past so that we can understand the present issues.
“I collect this garbage because I believe, and know to be true, that items of intolerance can be used to teach tolerance.”
David Pilgrim, Curator, Jim Crow Museum
https://www.ferris.edu/HTMLS/news/jimcrow/collect.htm
Women, minorities, Native Americas – have all been depicted in demeaning ways on pinball machines in the past
Gottlieb’s “Minstrel Man” from 1951.featuring white performers in demeaning black face or Afro-Americans as performers “blacked up,” — they applied burnt cork to their faces and painted their lips bright red to make them look outlandishly large. Black performers imitated bizarre impersonations of themselves because it was the only way they could break into show business.
These entertainers – black and white – delivered “coon” songs, danced jigs and mugged frequently in grotesque style, shaping stereotypes that exist to this day. the grinning face comedy is still very much a part of the American consciousness.
Playmatic’s 1980 tribute to the Disco Era featured a black woman holding a spear-like guitar, with green hair with stereotypical African flourishes in the middle of a wardrobe malfunction.
Bally’s 1974 pinball machine, “Boomerang” characterized the Aboriginal native people of Australia.
“YOU GOTTA BE TOUGH TO TAKE ON ME BUT ONLY THE GREATEST CAN WHUP ALI!”
Native Americans Depicted on Pinball Machines
American Western themes were popular on pinball machines through the 50s, 60s and 70s, as such there are many problematic depictions of Native Americans on pinball machines which might give modern collectors pause.
“Prior to production, this game was named ‘Chief’ and then renamed to ‘Big Injun’. Sample games were produced as ‘Big Injun’ and, according to the Encyclopedia of Pinball Vol 1, the Native American employees in Gottlieb’s wiring and assembly plant in South Dakota complained about this. So, the name was changed again, to ‘Big Indian’, stalling production for three months.” https://www.ipdb.org/machine.cgi?id=257 |
Sexism and Exploitation of Women on Pinball Machines
Pinball is dominated by young males and the pinball machine art often speaks to the fantasies of the adolescent male.
“Men don’t have much of a natural physical advantage in pinball — no woman I spoke to had any difficulties with nudging — but it remains a male-dominated activity in the same way that video games and bar sports like pool are. Plus, many of the most popular pinball machines are decorated with cartoonish or sexualized images of women. There’s even one called Whoa Nellie! Big Juicy Melons, which features a blond woman in cutoff shorts and a bikini top holding two watermelons in front of her breasts.”
https://www.thelily.com/these-women-are-pinball-wizards-and-theyre-encouraging-more-to-play/
Pinball machines originally were part of penny arcades designed to extract pennies and dimes from adults, the depiction of females on pinball machines reflected the times, the market and was tempered by censorship that prevailed over comic books, movies and other pop art at the time. In the 1970s the market started to move towards teens hanging out in arcades – typically adolecent males as well as a living of taboos and a freeing of pop culture after the McCarthy era.
“…the prevalence of the sexualized female image in pinball artwork
Pinups and Pinball: The Sexualized Female Image in Pinball
during the heyday of the second wave feminist movement, specifically, from 1970 to 1979.
Artwork
https://scholarworks.rit.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=10384&context=theses
Researchers in the early 1980s even did a study looking at the over-sexed pinball machines as compared to the relatively celibate video games of the era like Pac Man, Defender or Robotron. Even the cabinets of video games of the 80s featured rather static graphics compared to the hyper-sexual fantasy graphics on pinball machines. The question of the day was if sex attracted quarters with pinball machines why didn’t the newcomers – video games – use the same marketing techniques?
“When one looks to pinball machines and the paraphernalia and gear in the games, sex identifications, analogies, and symbols are profuse. The steel shaft which projects the balls, the holes, the channels, and above all, the flippers—all may be seen as exuding obvious sexual meaning.”
https://daily.jstor.org/pinball-video-games-sex-shaped-gamer-revolution/
